NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS -- My 18-year-old daughter's car suddenly became really slow to drive forward. She immediately pulled the car over in a parking lot and called AAA. After waiting 1.5 hours, the tow truck driver arrived. Although the car obviously had a problem being driven, the driver gets in her car and tries to drive it so it would be easier for him to tow the front wheel drive. The axle makes a crunching sound and the left front wheel gets pulled backwards like it's going to break off. Not the right thing for him to have done. Turned out it was the ball joint.

He gets in his truck and races loudly around the block so he can back up to the rear of the car. He jacks up the front of the car with a really old jack on 2 wheels, attaches the winch and begins to pull the car forward from the rear onto the lift bed on the ground. As it rolls, the jack lists to the side and gets hung up on a crack in the pavement. Only the back tires are on the lift and he can't pull the car any further. He gets outs, lowers the jack, and because the wheel is broken, the car lists to the side and now he can't get the jack out from under the car.

He raises the truck lift so that the back wheels are up off the ground, gets back in the truck, backs it up. The car body moves backwards, but because the front tire is broken, it doesn't move with the car and the tire gets pushed into the forward wheel well. He still can't get the jack out so he gets back in the truck and drives forward. Now the car body is pulled forward but the broken wheel again doesn't move with it. He continues to drive forward so far that I see the body of the wheel well begin to actually bend as it is crushed against the tire.

I yell to him to stop and told him that he's damaging the car. He gets out, lowers the lift bed to the ground, stomps around to the front of the car and pulls the jack out. He jams the jack under a spot in front of the rear axle and jacks the car up so he can take the tire off. But the wheel is broken and stays on the ground. He goes back to the truck and lifts the rear wheels to take pressure off the broken wheel. He tries to take the tire lug nuts off and his tool breaks so he has to get another. He finally removes the tire. He pulls out 2 long pieces of 4x4s and a small one.

He jams them under the broken wheel hub itself, lowers the jack so the hub rests directly on the wood, and I hear the axle and hub make more crunching sounds and it appears that the wheel hub is now getting damaged. He then begins to pull the car forward again as the wheel hub stays stationary and the car body starts to move forward. This is crazy. I told the guy to stop right there.

I called AAA as he begins to try something else. I tell the service representative that this tow truck driver is damaging my car. She says there is nothing she can do, he doesn't work for AAA. I explain that if they don't stop him from causing damage to my car, then AAA is responsible. She asks to speak to the driver. After speaking with her, he gives my phone back to me. She says that he has to get my car off his truck and there's nothing she can do.

I ask when she can have another tow truck there. She says that it will probably be another hour before someone comes. I said that was not OK after already waiting an hour and a half for a guy to damage the car. She says that I have to go to the end of the list of other calls. I ask to speak to a supervisor. She puts me on hold for 17 minutes, then tells me there is no supervisor available. She says she's directing me to a complaint center. Another long wait before someone comes on to ask me about the situation. Meanwhile the guy has pulled my car off the truck, inflicting more damage.

The AAA guy I speak with asks me to describe what happened. He says it sounds like the tow truck driver was doing everything he should have. I said that I watched him bend the wheel well of my car and cause further damage to the wheel hub and axle. He said that he'll have an inspector come out to the mechanic's shop where the car is towed to examine the car in a few days.

When the new tow truck driver comes, he shakes his head at what the other guy has done and says that the first driver has made his job way more difficult. When I told him what happened he said he could see this guy doing it, and that that company doesn't have a good reputation. I watch him use professional tools to jack up the car with a four-wheeled jack and remove the car's front wheel, place a heavy duty and made-for-the purpose metal slider under the body near the broken tire to help slide it forward without the car leaning over where the tire is missing. He pulls the front of the car carefully on to the lift, lifts the car and all is accomplished simply and efficiently.

Days later, when I respond to an AAA message saying they have a report from the inspector and will discuss a resolution, the AAA representative tells me that their inspector has found no damage to the car; any damage he found was already there before the guy did the tow job. He said that my daughter already caused the damage when she pulled over. I told him that my mechanic said that the inspector who came out was very young and inexperienced and had previously been only a tow truck driver. The AAA representative says that the inspector used to work for Geico and is experienced. He says that their review shows that the first tow truck driver did it all well.

I said that I did not agree with their resolution, since I witnessed the guy crush the fender along with other damage to the wheel hub and axle. He will inform the complaint reviewer that I dispute their determination that the truck driver was not at fault. I asked him if they ever contacted the second tow truck driver for his evaluation of what was left by the first driver, but AAA did not. The representative says he will pass along my request and that I do not agree with their resolution. He does not ask for the name and phone number of the second tow truck driver.

Don't waste your money on AAA. You can sign up for roadside assistance through your insurance company for $15/year or call 911 for assistance finding help that you can pay for only when you need it. AAA isn't available everywhere and will take way longer than a call by police to a nearby tow truck company. Another better roadside assistance company is Better World Club, a green company which does not lobby against public transportation like AAA.

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Verified Mileage or Pay as You Drive Is a Scam with AAA!

By ANNIE - 02/07/2012

Rating: 1/51

COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA -- The Auto Club's Verified Mileage Program or Pay as You Drive Program was approved by the Insurance Commissioner earlier this year and was touted as a way to save consumers money by lowering the price of insurance when they drive less. In theory, the program has its merits by discouraging unnecessary driving by motorists. In reality, the Auto Club's implementation of the program has many troubling flaws.

Auto Club agents are pressured to forge insurance documents and manipulate insurance premiums in exchange for more phone duty, better phone calls, better leads, paid vacations, better treatment by management, a trip to the Bahamas, and to maintain their employment. Ethical agents are threatened and harassed to quit or accept their fate that they will be terminated for low performance.

High production is looked at as a virtue and not scrutinized as agents submitting fraudulent business. Low production is looked at as laziness, incompetence, stupidity, and reason for punishment and termination. Lead distribution is such that high producers are given more leads and low producers are given even less leads insuring a huge gap between high and low producers. It also skews the policies written with integrity verses policies that are problematic.

Rather than estimate the accurate or actual mileage for each policy, agents are lowering initial mileage readings when starting a policy, which lowers the annual mileage category and thus lowers the annual premium, but just for that year. Agents that use this practice to quote will sell more policies because the premium will be much lower than it would otherwise be. Agents can accomplish this because only about 25% of all policies require inspections with an odometer reading. Agents at the district offices are allowed to inspect their own vehicles. They omit odometer readings intentionally and enter any figure they want to sell the policy.

All this would be a moot point; however, with the Verified Mileage Program insureds are required to submit their exact mileage reading upon renewal of the policy or be removed from the program. Through no fault of their own, many Auto Club insureds will have renewals with extraordinarily higher mileage depending on how much the agent lowered the original mileage and how many miles were driven during the current policy period.

An example to illustrate the wrong that is being perpetrated on unsuspecting consumers: If I start a policy today and my current annual mileage is 15,000 and I bought the car exactly a year ago, with zero miles, the mileage category should be 15,000 miles or less. The agent knows if he quotes me at 15,000 miles per year I won't buy the policy so he enters my mileage at 5,000 and my premium is much lower than what I am paying now so I switch to the Auto Club.

I'm happy until my renewal arrives next year. The premium almost doubles in price. When I am asked by the Auto Club what my current mileage is next year, it will be 30,000 because if you remember I was driving 15,000 miles per year and my vehicle had 15,000 miles at the inception of the policy. The Auto Club is going to rate my renewal at 25,000 miles per year because my agent entered 5,000 as my current mileage at the time I purchased the policy. The renewal will encompass the miles that were deficient from the prior policy (10,000) and include the actual miles driven (15,000). My annual mileage rating goes from 5,000 per year to 25,000 per year because it looks like I drove all those miles in only one year.

I really didn't drive that much but that is the way the miles are calculated. That's a big increase. If I complain, I am told by the representative that I am a liar and can bring in a service receipt in 30 days to lower my mileage to where it should be. Now that is customer service! Some in the company may say the miles are being accounted for over two years so it really doesn't matter. This is all being suppressed by the sales department. My view is the original sale would not have taken place and the premium manipulation has put the insured into a situation where the policy is written under false pretenses and can be voided by the insurance company.

The agent doesn't care because all this stuff will happen a year later and he sold a policy he normally would not have. The Auto Club praises the current agent and lavishes him with more phone duty, pays him more per policy, and sends him on paid vacations because he is a top producer and gets away with doing this on a daily basis. Nobody seems to notice except our insured. On the renewal the policy is way over priced and the insured non-renews or has to fight with our customer service department that won't believe him.

The insured doesn't know exactly what happened because they did not see the fraud that was committed against them. The fraud only becomes apparent on the renewal a year later. The insured has lost all longevity with their prior carrier because they are now with the Auto Club. Their current renewal is too high so the insured must shop for insurance elsewhere. The only way to eliminate the out right fraud and corruption at the Automobile Club of Southern California is to require inspections with odometer readings for every policy written. Currently, inspections are not required for “liability only” policies or insureds that have prior insurance with similar coverage.

Also, agents in the field can perform their own inspections and omit the odometer photo on purpose! This lack of accountability on new policies opens the door for agents to commit fraud and abuse on the unsuspecting public. This is a “verified” mileage program so you must “verify” the mileage, or otherwise this is a sham and should be abolished. Also, allowing the same agent that writes the policy to inspect the vehicle is a flagrant conflict of interest. The inspection should be completed by a manager or impartial third person at all levels of the organization and at all times include a photo of the odometer.

There should be a separate disclosure just for mileage in the insurance documents that require the exact mileage for each vehicle to be listed at the inception of the policy. The insured should be required to sign the disclosure verifying the exact mileage for each car on the policy. There should be an explanation that this figure will be used to determine next year's mileage calculation. Unbelievably, this is not now required. The mileage would therefore be verified by the insured, by an inspector, and by the agent. The current system allows for only the agent to verify the mileage and the agent has a conflict of interest to be trusted with that.

Currently the only disclosure that references anything about mileage is on the Coverage and Limits page and this only lists what the annual mileage is calculated at. This is misleading if the insured doesn't know what their real annual mileage is or how it was calculated. Most insureds don't know what they drive and are influenced by the agent. When you ask an insured how many miles they drive, they most likely under estimate. This figure should still be listed in that location but the mileage disclosure should list the exact miles at the inception of the policy. There is a culture of corruption within the Auto Club of Southern California and drastic measures are needed for true change to be forthcoming.

The Auto Club will defend its position by stating it has systems in place to catch fraud and abuse and to some extent they do. However, the only way to avoid agents from lowering mileage is to educate the insured with a mileage disclosure that must be signed by the insured and the agent. It should explain how this figure will affect the rating for the following year. When only some of the policies require inspections, and this can be manipulated by field sales agents, then there is no effective process. When the agent knows in advance which policies will require an inspection the agent can make up the mileage on selective policies to, “get the job done”.

The Auto Club will also reference the fact that conversations are recorded and can be audited for integrity. The agent knows this and never asks the insured what their mileage is. They'll only make reference to how much the insured's commute is and make up a figure that is statistically consistent with the commute, albeit on the low end. The policy ends up being a fill in the blanks bonanza for the agent.

Some managers look the other way and others go further by processing business that has serious errors. In fact some managers were required to send policies through processing a second time to verify corrections were completed because the managers couldn't be trusted to verify the corrections were actually completed. This company needs managers to watch the managers. But when the processing team can only catch incorrect phone numbers or spelling corrections, the mileage factor cannot be corrected at the pre-completion level but only at renewal when the insured complains about the increase in premium unless an inspection is completed and a mileage disclosure is developed.

Without seeming redundant, I have spoken in generalities because it is not my intention to get employees in trouble but to correct the failures of this program and this company. If the deficiencies discussed here are not corrected I have lists of managers, employees, and policy numbers that are at issue and I will release this information to the media and notify those insureds that have been wronged. Insureds will have grounds for a class action lawsuit.

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Don't Waist Your Money On AAA Membership

By Ellie Michelle - 10/17/2012

Rating: 1/51

SANTA ANA -- I have been a AAA member for 25 years. What a waist of money!!! I took a family vacation to Portland, or in July 2012, for a family reunion. Upon arrival at the airport we rented a car from enterprise, knowing we will get our AAA discount on the car at the end of the trip, four days later. Upon return to the airport, we had a $580.00 total payment due on our credit card!! I hit the roof and called AAA asking why?

I was told by **, the supervisor to customer service with AAA, that they do not honor or work with enterprise any more!!! I told him how am I to know that? He said they do not notify members on these issues!!! My feelings are that AAA does make business decisions without the member's awareness behind the scenes and the chances are members get upset but eventually drop their complaints and move on!!!

For the past several months, I have written formal complaint letters to their president/CEO **, communicated with **, again followed up 15 times on the status of my complaint!!! Up to now, I have not received any resolution, get my refund, or communication back from their complaint department. The customer service complaint department is a total joke!!! They ignore letters, faxes, and you can't reach them unless you fax them. Still they don't respond!!! Wow what a great company!!! When I call to follow up, they are surprised as to how many times I have called to complain about their customer service and how they ignore customer related issues!!

** always has a excuse, or does not return calls. When he does, he blames it on the other company!!! I have been passed around from one supervisor to another, even talked to a supervisor's supervisor!!! This is not a complicated thing, just refund the damn money!!!!! How hard is that??? From California to Texas and then back organ the follow-up calls go around and around!!! Still no resolution and I'm aggravated like hell with AAA!!!! I have to thank enterprise, because they were nice enough to give me a 20% discount equal to $40. That's more than I can say about my own membership of 25 years with AAA which did not do crap for me!!!

The AAA does not deserve my money. Nor would I want membership with AAA any. I cancelled my membership on the phone and demanded to get my prorated membership refund. My money was wasted on them for so many years. I have been a loyal customer. What happened to their loyalty to me???? People.. Save your money.

This AAA is not what it used to be. They are greedy, irresponsible, and so secure with their jobs that they pass you around, giving you run around until you get tired and drop your complaint. I deserve so much better than them. I feel bad wasted my time believing in AAA!!!! Is it the company policy to ignore members???? You tell me. Shame on you AAA. You are disgusting taking advantage of good members like me.

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AAA Assessment Tests are Irrelevant to their Applicable Positions

By DFUTURERN - 03/09/2011

LONG BEACH,, CALIFORNIA -- I have read some of the posts regarding AAA employees and how they are like robots, how they only know how to read the scripts and how they are incapable of thinking outside the box to assist their clients. Well I think I know why most of you are experiencing such horrible customer service amongst other things. I just recently applied for a job at triple A (AAA) and was very excited when I received the call back from a hit on resume. Thrilled because I have been laid off for approximately 2 years.

During the time I was laid off, I managed to renew my real estate license, as well as started working on my degree. I have completed 73 units and will be transferring to receive my BS degree. I have been in sales for over 23 years and have been very successful! What is on my resume is all true, every deal I have ever closed is verifiable. On my resume it shows that I worked for one company for 10 years the first go round and was hired back for another 9 months before being laid off due to an acquisition by Hitachi. That speaks volumes!

If an employer is willing to rehire a sales representative back for a second time around after resigning (one would think) AAA would recognize that. I must be a great sales representative and a top producer. I listed my previous VP and Director of Sales on my application for them to verify my performance and work ethic. I have no criminal record, I have a ticket free driving record for the past 7 years.

These are questions they asked me before I made it to the assessment part of the interview process. I was told that after the assessment tests (if I pass) I will move on to interview with a live human being (a manager). Keep in mind that I was told repeatedly that the assessment test. There were no RIGHT or WRONG answers, to just be truthful. (Keep in mind I was very excited about working for triple A selling insurance products. Big company, room for upward mobility, already had at least 12 people saying that they would switch their insurance policies over to me, because I would be working there).

Well let me tell you the type of questions on the assessment tests. Some of these questions I went to the EEOC website and have determined that some of these questions are better suited to be asked after being hired. The first question (if I am remembering correctly) was HOW OLD ARE YOU? EEOC says that how old a person is should not matter during the application process that people over the age of 40 are protected under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and that these are questions that can be asked after being hired.

They asked me questions like the following.. "How many jobs I've had in the past five years", "how many times have I collected unemployment", "how many people I know that sells insurance", "how much do I think a first year sales representative should make in a year", "how much should a representative be making after 3 years", "who told me about this job", "Did I speak to the person who told me about this job".

Here are the choices they gave me to answer from. "1 hour to 1 week", "2 hours to a month", " 2 months to a year" etc.. you get the point. They also asked me how much money would I spend on a client in unreimbursed dollars and pretty much gave at least 10 or more choices. They also asked how many hours do I think a first year sales representative should work a week, then they asked questions if I like spending time with my family etc.. Keep in mind they told me to be honest "there are no right or wrong answers".

So anyway I finished taking this God forsaken test and what do you know, I go back to the training coordinator and he says to me "oh..You didn't score high enough on the test" (remember, there are "NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWERS"). Also keep in mind that there isn't one question on the test I would have to lie about, not one question on the test that has anything to do with intelligence, sales, or anything relevant to sales. Just questions that can disqualify you if you have been out of work for a while, questions that can lead to age discrimination, (they also asked me my nationality) questions that can disqualify you if you have been on unemployment twice in your life.

They asked a lot of questions about school also. All of which were answered truthfully. The training coordinator told me that he was sorry and that may be sales is not for me. Can someone please tell me, what part of this test has anything to do with my ability to sell insurance? or any other product for that matter. Also how can a personality test determine what type of human being I am, and how well I have done for the past 23 years in sales. These tests maybe set up for the younger generation. People who have no experience. Most of the questions I answered from experience. I don't think they want anyone who has experience. I said all of this to say.

With the economy the way it is today, unemployed workers should not have to take tests such as these to get back to work. Many of you have mentioned you've been talking to people who don't know how to make decisions, people who don't appear to know what they are doing. This is because good people like myself with a proven track record cannot get a job, because of tests like these that have no meaning, no substance, no ability to determine if a person will be a good employee at all. This is a way to keep certain nationalities out of work, to keep older people down.

I was compelled to type this letter because this particular rejection is not sitting right. I have spoken to CEO's, CFO's and owners of companies all of my life. I have closed major real estate deals, sold technology products to Novartis, Delta Airlines, and many other huge deals, yet AAA felt Sales was not for me because of a "personality" test that has nothing to do with sales. In fact the training coordinator said to me, "maybe sales just isn't for me."

I will continue to do my research and converse with the EEOC to make sure that companies are doing right by long term unemployed workers, workers who were once stable before the economy fell apart, and now seem to be undesirable to these companies through no fault of their own. So if you all are wondering why you are being treated poorly by AAA reps etc. I feel it is because they do not want someone older, qualified and experienced, instead they want someone that doesn't have a clue about life and the real world, and someone with a proven tract record.

I would love to hear if anyone else have been through the same experiences I have with these personality rests. I know several sales reps all over the age of forty that have their Bachelor degrees very educated and have proven tract records and have been told they were not going to be hired because of the way they answered a "personality" test. I feel sorry for the economy and anyone who is going through this new way of being hired. The economy will never be the way it was. Never.

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Stranded and Not Caring

By doug5348 - 07/21/2013

Rating: 1/51

OREGON -- On July 18, 2013 I was driving my Ford Cargo van and a small trailer on vacation. Gold prospecting in southern Oregon, I came to a big hill just passed Canyonville on I 5 about 30 miles from Grants Pass. All of sudden I noticed smoke out the back and the truck slowing down, I almost made it to the top. The engine sounded fine but no tranny. I called AAA. I had AAA plus. It was about 3:30 pm they said they would have someone there to tow me soon. The tow truck got there around 5:00 pm. The driver was nice and got me hooked up and towed me to his boss' shop so he could remove my drive line.

We got there after 6:00pm. The mechanic was having trouble removing the drive line. He said he could not do it. The owner shows up at 7:00pm says he is not going to tow me because triple A doesn't pay him enough to tow me to Eugene. He says AAA does not cover box vans or small trailers. He parked my truck across the street on the Hwy shoulder unhooks me and leaves me. No Water no nothing. He was a total jerk.

I just paid my AAA plus $171.00 the week earlier to be covered for this. I am a 100% disabled Vietnam vet with several health issues. I had my 4 English bull dogs with me and a Cockatoo, one English bulldog was overheating so bad he was foaming at the mouth and noise badly I didn't think he was going to make it. The owner watched me from across the street smiling and joking and pointing while I was trying to save my dog.

I was on the phone with AAA from 6:30pm to 1:00am trying to get them to tow me. They told me on page 14 part way down there was a small paragraph that said they will not tow box van or utility trailers unless there is a motorcycle in it. I said what booklet? The one we sent you when you first sign up. I said are you kidding 15 years ago? You have taken my $171.00 for 15 years and now you're going to let me down when I need you?

Anyway, 6:30pm to 1:00am to get them to OK the tow on the side of a highway w/4 dogs. They called back and said the tow truck will not tow me with the drive line hooked up and I needed to change the right rear trailer tire? (there was 70% tread on it...) I said I would do it in the dark if it meant me getting out of there. I did it in about 45 min. both. With the tools I had with me.

Bill's towing should not be a AAA tow service. Very rude, non caring. Their driver could not apologize enough for the rude behavior of their owner. If you're a AAA member, you should e-mail them first, describe what you'll be doing have them e-mail you back so you have it in writing. They don't cover a lot of dirt roads ether (by the way) AAA should give a booklet each time you pay your yearly fee. That's not too unreasonable is it??

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AAA Is a Joke

By Rhonda - 02/09/2013

Rating: 1/51

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN -- 2-9-13 Same problem as many other posters. My husband was driving my truck home from work when it suddenly broke down and he had to pull to the side of the road. He called me because my name is on the card. I called AAA and they told me I had to be within 15-20 minutes of the vehicle for them to send help. So I throw on some clothes and drive approximately 50 miles to where my husband is stranded.

I called AAA back about ten minutes before I got there. There was no record of my first call. So I am driving and trying to give the agent my info at the same time. Even she cautioned that I take care not to cause an accident. So she tells me she was making me a priority call because I was on the freeway and the tow truck would arrive within an hour. I called back 30 minutes later and she told me the estimated time of arrival had not changed (meaning she lied in the first place).

There is a difference between saying the truck will be there within the hour and in an hour. So I wait the whole hour. No truck and no call (she took my callback number at the outset). When I call them back to ask where is my truck she tells me the ETA has been pushed back another hour. By now my husband has been on the side of the road (it's winter and about 25 degrees) nearly three hours and I've been out there about an hour and a half with big semis whizzing inches past my door. Very scary. She told me the tow company gave some excuse about their long-distance driver not being able to go until 12.

While I am talking to her, I look across the freeway and see one of the companies trucks empty and headed in the other direction. I kid you not. She said she did not know anything about their scheduling or who was ahead of me. So I ask her why didn't they say that up front. When I called back after the first half an hour the agent I talked to told me the truck was en route and expected to arrive on time. So how do we go from that to another 1:20 minute wait? She had no answer so I asked to speak to her manager. She put me on hold about 10 minutes -probably hoping I would hang up. Manager comes on line finally with the same excuses and I went ballistic.

Not only have I been a AAA member 30 years, I pay on time and only file one claim that I recall in 30 years. And this is the best service I can expect - to be left on the side of the freeway in freezing weather for four hours while watching empty tow trucks drive past me. To add insult to injury, she said if she called the police to come and assist me, they might call their own tow company and I would have to pay to get it out of the tow yard. Unbelievable. So then she offers to call another tow company but said it might be a longer wait. I told her I did not care who she called as long as somebody came pronto to help.

The new tow driver also could not get there for 45 minutes but at least he arrived on time and we finally got off the side of the freeway after 4 hours. And don't believe the other post about the insurance being with the car and not the driver in Michigan. I live in Michigan I also was under the impression that my vehicles are covered wherever they need help, whether I am in them or not. I have paid up insurance. If I can provide the card number and give my consent over the phone they ought to be able to do better than say I have to be in the car or else. What the heck am I paying for.

I am seriously looking around for a new carrier. After 30 years! The manager did say she would be filing a complaint on my behalf but what good would that do me if something had happened to us out there on the freeway because they are too negligent to send a tow truck in a timely manner. I could go on about other lapses in service but I think everyone gets the message that AAA will take your money but don't'really care if you get good service or not.

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AAA PLUS RV Not Worth it!

By Lisa - 04/11/2013

Rating: 1/51

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN -- During the yearly renewal of our AAA a representative suggested we upgrade our membership to AAA plus RV. It sounded like a reasonable deal so I agreed to the 175.00 cost to be upgraded. It included travel interruption reimbursement involving car mechanical issues on a trip which required costs on the trip. The protection plan states that it covers rental vehicle, hotel, and meal costs to your planned destination up to 72 hours after the car breakdown to 1000.00.

Our 19 year old son who is covered under our policy had severe car issues on his way back home with 870 miles left to go of the trip. Because he is not of age to rent a car my husband had to drive from our home to help him. On his way home he had planned make 2 stops. AAA made many calls from their investigative center in Southfield, Michigan about this reimbursement request. Each voice mail or phone call sounded like a police interrogation. **, employee # ** was the last person to interrogate my son. I was listening to the questions she was asking him and asking the same questions many different ways.

She decided that she would only cover the first night hotel charge after the breakdown and total disablement of the vehicle. I then called the customer service dept. at AAA about the situation. I talked with ** in member relations who declined to give me an employee number. I explained the situation. She was not helpful and argumentative not letting me speak. She explained that since the cost of the protection was only about 45.00 per person that each and every reimbursement request is sent to AAA investigation dept. and the employees have to be interrogating otherwise they could not stay in business.

She said that since my son planned to make a stop before he got home that he was only covered until the stop. AAA covered 95.00 out of the 539.09 claim. This was contraindicating to what the Car Travel Interruption Protection Plan is supposed to cover and it states that it will cover up to 1000.00. If I wouldn't have persisted I don't think they would have covered anything at all. When I told her I would file a complaint about this issue she said they get complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau all the time and it is not a bother to them.

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Oil leak

By dgranger78 - 01/04/2012

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA -- The very first time that I've ever used AAA services since I've been a member and this happens. The towing was great, did a good job. I called AAA and the lady suggested that I have my car towed to one of the AAA car care centers (Charleston, Sam Rittenburg Road). The shop called me and said that the oil control valve was bad and had to get a new part from Toyota and it would take 3 days for the part to arrive. It would cost me over six hundred dollars. I agreed to have the work done.

I picked my car up four days later and as I drove away from the shop a large amount of white smoke came out of the exhaust pipe. I drove it straight home and the car stayed in my driveway for about five days before I used it again. I was very lucky that I happen to see oil in my driveway before I started my car, because most of the oil had leaked out. I refilled the oil in my car and took it back to the AAA car center and they told me that the head gaskets needed to be replaced and it would cost another three hundred and sixty dollars.

It's fine if the gasket needed to be replaced, but I think they should have discovered this before they let me drive away from their shop and maybe damage my engine. I took my car to another shop and they replaced the gaskets for less money and they completely cleaned my engine to make sure that there wasn't any other leaks. AAA should have cleaned my engine and found this leak before they allowed me to drive the car. I spoke with the guy at AAA counter and all he could say was sorry.

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AAA/Member Select of Chicago are frauds and will cheat you and you will have to sue them

By dangle1978 - 07/31/2009

Hello my name is ** and my husband is **. I know you get tons of emails and sorts daily, but we have a story and need to get it out. On December 23, 2008 we lost our home to a house fire. It was determined to be electrical after the insurance company did there investigation. Since then the insurance company know as AAA or Member Select since they go by 2 separate names have been horrible to deal with. They put us up in a hotel for 3 months then finally got us into a rental property which they had been paying until now. Since the fire they have been tiring everything not to pay us and so finally we hired an attorney.

When we original bought our insurance in April 2008 and only got $172,741 coverage for the house and $129,556 for contents. A month later AAA/Member Select sent us a letter stating that we were in violation of the policy that we had to insure the home for the replacement cost which was $408,000 and $306,000 for contents. We tried to get out of it, but were not able to and had to insure it for the $408,000. Now they are tiring to pay less to rebuild even though they made us insure it for that amount by taking out the original oak hardwood floors that we had, oak crown molding, oak doors etc.

In addition our policy ended March 21, 2009 and when they renewed our policy they upped our coverage even more and our premium has doubled, yet they don't want to pay the original amount they made us insure it for. All they have paid out to date is $15,000 on contents and $20,000 on dwelling, $15,000 is not much for 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids) when you have lost everything in a fire. The insurance company hired an independent adjuster to value our home and give a rebuild amount.

The adjuster went back and forth with the insurance company and finally submitted a quote and at the bottom of each page of his quote he state "This is not an accurate quote to rebuild the ** home this is what the insurance company told me to do and I am don't working for them". So they have not settled on anything.

Then the insurance company AAA or Member Select since they go by 2 names wanted to talk to friends and family so we gave them contact information. Then that wasn't good enough they wanted bank statement and credit card statements and as many receipts as we could get for items we had, we provided them with all that. But as you know most stores don't keep receipts for any amount of time, but we got what we could.

Now as of July 31, 2009 we have no home to live in. They have denied our whole claim and we are having to sue them in court. They have stated they are not going to pay anything out and not cover our living expenses. The only 2 reasons they gave us were 1. When they dug up our property to find the cause of the fire they only dug up one corner of it and only found 2 TV's and they said under oath we stated we had 6 which was true. They said we mislead them and it breaks there contract. Not only did we have 6 TV's but our family and friends verified that when they talked to them.

The 2nd reason why was that they said our bank statements only shower that we brought in $130,000 and our expenses that we spent were over $160,000 and we didn't have enough income for that. They did not take into account our credit cards or loans we had out or any cash we got. We are self employed and we get a lot of clients that pay cash and like we told them all that does not get deposited and any self employed individual will tell you that.

But the bottom line is they denied our claim and now until we settle in court we are homeless. We have 2 children whom are staying with my mother in Missouri because we don't know where we will live. The State Insurance Commissioner told us they are the 4th worst insurance company in the USA and we are learning that the hard way. We honestly don't know what we are going to do and we don't want anyone else to have to go through what we are doing. We are paying AAA or Member Select since they go 2 name $3000.00 a year to insure our property and there is nothing on it. We don't believe they are treating us fair they have prolonged this every step of the way now they are just coming up with more and more stuff.

Also we tried to get the local media involved and even provided proof to them but one news station did not even read our documents he just called AAA/Member Select and they told him they offered us $20,000.00 less than what we were insured for and we declined it so that is why they denied our claim. We told them that was a bunch of crap and we have the paperwork stating why they denied us and they told us it was to much to read.

We also contacted our attorney who was shocked they would even lie to the media just to save there butt. We are in need of getting this story out and need all the help we can get. I hope you take the time to read this is look into this. If there is anything you can do we can give our attorneys number and provide documentation for all this. We don't think our attorney is doing all he can be doing. So we are open for advice.

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AAA 'No Hassle' Auto Buying Service a rip-off

By Abused Consumer - 05/29/2007

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- After buying a new Toyota Prius with the AAA's 'no hassle, no haggling' pre-negotiated price, I found out two days later the dealer was $1356 more than the other two in town for the exact same car (with Pkg#6). I am really shocked that AAA won't make this Member dealership honor their agreement. The regional AAA program rep, Jay, refused to do anything about it, as did the dealer, since it was a completed sale. Jay even has copies of the ads and emails I sent him from the other local AAA Dealers, so I was able to fully back my point, but he doesn't seem to care.

Everyone I talked to at Steven's Creek Toyota in San Jose basically was lying through their teeth when I went back in to speak to them after I found out they ripped me off. After being referred thereby AAA's website and purchasing the car (with a fancier trim package than what I was originally looking for, so I didn't have an exact out-the-door quote on hand) at what I was told was their AAA price, the floor manager later said they did NOT have ANY written agreement with AAA (which is not true if they are in AAA's program!) and he told me that the AAA price was whatever the general manager wanted it to be that day.

They said I should be happy that I did not pay full List price and left it at that. They refused to show me the AAA agreement during the sale and after when I returned, saying they could not find it (** has never sent me a copy either, despite repeated requests). The dealer also refused to price match, after their in-house AAA rep had emailed me that they do price match. Between the AAA program and a promise to price-match, I felt confident buying the car there without shopping around, but boy was I wrong to trust AAA!

The dealer's excuse for his high price is that they actually only wanted to give me $3500 for my trade-in, not the $5000 we agreed upon (for a vehicle worth $7k wholesale at the time,$9k retail, per KBB), and that justified the higher sales price. They also said their own *cost* on the Prius was higher than what the two other dealers in town were *selling* them for. This is a bunch of hogwash, since they also bragged that they are one of the highest-volume Toyota dealers in California, and I know high-volume Dealers get better discounts from the manufacturer.

The floor manager showed me a scribbled piece of paper with their 'cost', but they had tacked on hundreds of dollars worth of advertising fees, sales commissions,prep fees, and other misc. fees; the floor manager didn't even know what some of the fees were! I assume the other dealers (Capitol and Sunnyvale Toyota) have the same costs, and they manage to sell the same car for $1356 less. I wonder if AAA ** fell for the line of crap that they were handing out. These fees didn't include any closing costs, either, which were additional and added later.

Per the AAA Buyer's program website, trade-in value is not supposed to alter the price of the new car. I would never traded a $7000-$8000 car in for only $3500, especially since the having the older car saves my teenage son a lot of money on auto insurance. $5000 was the amount agreed upon.

I do not know if I should be more mad at the slimy dealer or at the AAA Buying Program regional manager ** for not backing up the customers using the AAA buying program when a dealer does not honor the terms of it. I tried speaking with the dealership myself, but found that they couldn't care less about customer service once the car is off the lot, and all promises go by the wayside. I was hoping for either a refund of the $1356+tax, so as to honor the AAA and the original sales agreement(s), or at least booting the Steven's Creek dealer out of the AAA program because they refused to honor it.